In Sunday’s 45-3 win over the Bills, the 49ers collected 311 rushing yards, the fourth-most in franchise history and the highest total in the NFL since Oct. 24, 2010. The performance came on the heels of a 245-yard effort against the Jets, meaning San Francisco has rushed for more yards in their past two games (556) than 18 teams have collected this season.

The 49ers lead the NFL in rushing (195.8 yards per game) and their 6.1 yards per carry is the second-highest average after five games since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, according to Grantland.com.

In the 49ers’ run game, Gore (432 yards) remains the headliner, but he’s no longer a solo act as elusive understudy Kendall Hunter (201 yards) is matching his average of 5.4-yards per carry. Gore and Hunter are the only NFC running backs averaging more than 5.2 yards an attempt among those with 20 carries.

Grant Cohn had a interesting observation in his blog today that isn't popular yet but one I totally agree with. Cully is our best CB. Talent wise, he's better than any of the other guys. Great combination of size, speed, athleticism, ball skills, and is a underrated tackler. And he's our best press coverage CB. Now I feel Rogers is the most important CB on the team. He's like a chess-piece we move inside and outside depending on the defense we're running. We ask a lot from him and he usually delivers. But Cully has been the most impressive and most consistent thus far this year and the stats help back up that claim.

Grant Cohn had a interesting observation in his blog today that isn't popular yet but one I totally agree with. Cully is our best CB. Talent wise, he's better than any of the other guys. Great combination of size, speed, athleticism, ball skills, and is a underrated tackler. And he's our best press coverage CB. Now I feel Rogers is the most important CB on the team. He's like a chess-piece we move inside and outside depending on the defense we're running. We ask a lot from him and he usually delivers. But Cully has been the most impressive and most consistent thus far this year and the stats help back up that claim.

I guess we all have differing opinions. I think Cully "will" be #1, here's how I currently rank the CBs...

Grant Cohn had a interesting observation in his blog today that isn't popular yet but one I totally agree with. Cully is our best CB. Talent wise, he's better than any of the other guys. Great combination of size, speed, athleticism, ball skills, and is a underrated tackler. And he's our best press coverage CB. Now I feel Rogers is the most important CB on the team. He's like a chess-piece we move inside and outside depending on the defense we're running. We ask a lot from him and he usually delivers. But Cully has been the most impressive and most consistent thus far this year and the stats help back up that claim.

Interesting. I never voiced my opinion on Culliver really, but I do think he'll eventually be a #1 cornerback for us. We'll see how things play out. He's played ridiculously well thus far. I wonder if he'll see any time against Cruz Sunday.

I guess we all have differing opinions. I think Cully "will" be #1, here's how I currently rank the CBs...

1. Tarell Brown
2. Chris Culliver
3. Carlos Rogers

I can't see Brown anything more than 3rd because he only plays one side of field, can't play the slot and because he's not as stout in press coverage as the other CBs. If you notice, 90% of the time Brown is in off man. He's giving up huge cushions because Fangio and Donatell figured out that Brown is better suited to keep guys in front of him and let him break on the ball on shorter routes, while the cushion let's him read the route and use the sideline as a extra defender on the deeper routes. If you remember before we had Fangio, Nolan and Manusky had Brown as a nickelback and he sucked. But Donatell put him on one side of the field, made him play off and he excelled. Now he does a outstanding job in his role, but Cully can play the slot and has lined up for a few snaps on the right side. And he's been the most impressive this year. When I see the Cully, one-on-one in press coverage, I assume he's going to make a play. And he has...from the last defensive play against the Packers to last Sunday with his int. Rogers is the only other CB I know will routinely make plays when locked up, one-on-one. When other guys are in man coverage, I'm hoping they get their head around to make a play on the ball.

Culliver should cover Cruz, Brown should cover Nicks (if he plays) and Rogers should cover Barden in my opinion. Thoughts?

Its not that simple. All the guys have a role. Cully plays primarily on the outside, left-side. Brown plays exclusively on the right-side, outside. Rogers mans the slot and if they go four wide, Cox is the other slot CB. We have a system and it works....until it doesn't. Our defense is based on a philosophy. We try to take away EVERYTHING. We don't key in on one player or one element of a offense. It's one of the reasons we lost to the Vikes because Fangio refused to account for Harvin even though he was the only weapon they had and he was gashing us, 3rd down after 3rd down. We account for every player on the field and expect our guys to hold the line in the scheme and give up nothing over the top. Thats what we do. Fangio and Jimbaugh believes it makes it easier to go from week to week, facing different opponents if your stick with a single philosophy instead of game-planning every week for different players and offenses. It creates less room for missed assignments and mental lapses and lets guys play faster. I'm sure we watch film and look for tendencies and tweak the scheme a little, but if you look closely, we pretty much play everyone the same way. Even when we faced a offensive weapon like Megatron, we didn't do anything really different against him. We just made sure we bracketed him and kept a safety over the top. Thats something we do a few times during a game anyway. But it isn't normal for us to prioritize matching-up with personnel all over the field like your implying.

I have to admit, Jacobs looked impressive during pre-season. And our short-yardage game has still been struggling. But it really comes down to STs. Jacobs doesn't play it and with with the injury to Ice, and having to activate Ian Williams, we couldn't afford to sit Dixon because he's a core STs guy. Plus Dixon is the back-up FB so there's that also.

But I really want to see what Jacobs can do in our scheme. With Haggans back from the suspension and able to help on STs, might be a good time to sit Dixon and see what Jacobs can give us. All our running game is missing is that big back/move the pile presence and Jacobs looked like he was that element in pre-season. It's not like STs has been lights out either, they've struggled here and there so sitting Dixon for a game or two shouldn't be that big of a deal.

I want to see what Jacobs can do for us. Especially in the short yardage game where we've failed miserably on third downs. Harbaugh needs to find a way to get him on the field. He looked good in the preseason.

I think we would be wise to sit Gore for the Cards game and allow Gore's ribs to heal for a full 3 weeks before we begin the last 8 games of the season. I'd rather make sure Gore is healthy for the stretch run instead of rushing him back for one game. Hunter, Dixon and Jacobs should be enough for the Cards. Got to look at it from a long-term perspective. Especially with a guy like Gore, who's presence is needed if this team wants to dream of any post-season success. And if your Jimbaugh, that's the main reason you kept 4 running backs.....for situations like these.